First day of our Europe trip! Landed in London around 12pm local after a red eye flight from Chicago. Took the tube to Kensington where we stayed for the first night. Got in a bit early and our room wasn’t ready, so we checked out a local park and found a duck pond by Kensington Palace. . Had some fun walking around looking at the new birds before checking into the hotel and getting ready for dinner. Makenzie made us reservations at a popular Indian restaurant called Dishoom, overall great experience! Had a couple different kinds of naan, lamb samosas and chicken curry. After dinner we went to a different park where we saw a peacock and ran into an older gentleman who seemed to know all the birds in the park by name. Said he has been coming to the park for years and had his own bird with him named Koko. Both were very freindly and Koko climbed on our shoulders for some pictures. Great start to the trip!

Started day 2 in London, woke up early because we are still switching time zones so got an early walk to breakfast at a local chain coffee shop. Walked around London to see some cool streets to finish off our morning in London before heading to Heathrow. Quick flight over to Dublin with a beautiful viewing arriving to the country then picked up the rental car to drive from Dublin on the east coast to Galway on the west coast where we will be for the next two nights. Checked into our (way nicer than London) hotel then hit the town for some dinner. Heard of a place called McDonaghs which is right on the coast and basically only serves fish and chips, was not disappointed one bit. Popped into a local pub to have a classic beer fued of Guinness vs. coors light, love me a good coors but the Guinness too the cake today. Finished off the night with some ice cream from Murphys, fantastic dairy products from these Irish cows. Early ish night tonight so we can go see the cliffs tomorrow morning!

Started off the day bright and early the American way… with McDonald’s breakfast! They had a breakfast wrap that was sausage, bacon, egg, cheese and hasbrown all wrapped in a tortilla - definitely need that in the states. After a quick breakfast we hit the road to drive through the Irish countryside on some very narrow and winding roads that left my passenger princess scrambling for her Dramamine. However, with my excellent driving, we made it to the Cliffs of Moher where we got to hike along the Oceanside with some amazing views. It was very windy up at the top, which made the hike very entertaining but pictures a difficult task to overcome. Made lots of cow friends along the way, I said the new name should be “The Cliffs of Moo” which only got a slight chuckle out of Makenzie for how hilarious of a joke that was. After the cliffs we stopped into a the small town of Doolin right off the coast to grab some lunch before heading back along our treachourous countryside. At a local pub called McGanns we were served by a fellow that reminded us of Hagrid that made us feel very welcome. Eventually made our way back to the hotel and after a quick power nap, made our way back into the streets of Galway where we had to stop into the local TK Max to see if they had as good of deals internationally as they do in the states. Stopped into a local pizza place called the Dough Bros where we demolished a Margarita pizza in 5 minutes flat before walking around the local neighborhood. Found ourselves in Fitzgeralds pub to enjoy some live music and couple pints of Guinness. I was able to try some locally distilled Irish whiskey called Micils which I thoroughly enjoyed on the rocks while having a lovely conversation with the bartender about the warmth of Irish whiskey. Finished off the night with ice cream from Murphys (again) and a spice bag from Xi’an street food (a classic Irish drunk food that did not dissapoint). Caught up on The Summer I Turned Pretty while enjoying our food beforing calling it a night. Fantastic day 3!

We were very excited to start off day four with our first day of school…falconry school! Makenzie signed us up for a private hawk walk through the woods of Corg that we got to enjoy with our guide Jeff from Texas and our hawk Frodo from South America. To start, we met some owls and other hawks before meeting our new buddy Frodo who we would be flying with. We were taught the correct way to call him and send him off before going on our walk. The walk was amazing, it is such a weird feeling to call a hawk and watch it fly directly at you with its talons flared then gently landing on your raised fist. The hawks have bells tied to their feet, but we still could not hear it flying until it was directly behind our ears and was preparing to land. Frodo has the ability to crush skulls with his talons, but because he thinks of us as his hunting buddies he is very gentle with us whenever he lands. He also only weights 3 pounds, so you barely feel him on your arm. After the walk we started our 3 hour drive to the south of Ireland to stay in Cork, the unofficial capital of Ireland. We stopped into McDonald’s again for a quick lunch in the middle of our drive where I got to try a Jaffa cake McFlurry which was fantastic. Continued our drive and eventually made our way to our hotel on the river in downtown Cork. Went into the busy streets to a ramen shop for some dinner and exploring but called it an early night because it was raining pretty hard. We did find out Murphys was a chain ice cream shop so had to stop in to perform a quality check and make sure they are providing quality ice cream all around Ireland (they are). Got back to the hotel a bit earlier due to the travel day so we can get up early tomorrow to explore the new city!

Today started off on a very good foot because to our surprise we had a clear view of the sunrise with blue skies and no overcast from our hotel balcony! Got up bright and early to get the full cork experience and still give us time to do some adventuring outside of the city. Took to the streets with 2 main goals in mind: find matcha and visit the local market. Our journey took a turn for the better as we stumbled apon my very own bakery pictured below. Stopped in for a quick pain au chocolate then found the city center market that boasted a wide variety of smells ranging from daisys and chocolates to fresh caught crab and cod. We decided we didn’t need any full fish or raw beef for our morning so continued our journey to find matcha. Found a place called Bean and Leaf that hit the spot then made a fantastic decision to try and find breakfast sandwiches. Found a place called 5 Points that had a fantastic salted bagel breakfast sandwich with OFlynns sausage. Next we went back to the hotel to get the car and start the drive to the south coast of Ireland past the town of Kinsale. We parked the car on a peninsula looking out over the ocean with a small trail to walk on. The views were similar to the cliffs, but the crowd was completely different; we had less than 10 people on the entire cliff so we could roam around on our own. The entire experience was one of a kind, we spent some time just standing and watching the waves crash against the coast. The wind was strong enough that it brought bubbles of sea foam up the coast. We spent about an hour on the cliffside before driving back into the town of kinsale to check out some pubs, restaurants and shops. It was a fun small harbor town with some vibrant colored buildings which was enjoyable to explore. Had ourselves a couple pints at The Spaniard and lunch at The Lemon Leaf then drove back to Cork. The weather was much better than the day before so we revisited some of the streets we rushed through in the rain the day before and did some shopping. Makenzie got a couple jumpers and a new pair of brown Sambas that she is very proud she found. We wanted to go to dinner at The Market Lane and the wait was about an hour and a half so we stopped into a small pub to have a pint and people watch while we waited. Struck up some conversation with two gentlemen in their late 50s early 60s that were locals to Cork who were curious about our trip. Their names were Peter and Bryan, both born in Ireland and worked as truck drivers around the country so they thought it was cool I work for PepsiCo. They told us of some of their travels to the states with their families and after swapping stories for an hour or so Makenzie and I “went for a spud” as Peter and Bryan called it. The dinner spot was fantastic, Makenzie got the sirloin steak and I got the pork collar with Szechuan sweet potato fries. Capped off the night with a white chocolate espresso martini. Very eventful day!

Another early start to the day today to knock out our nearly 3 hour drive from Cork to Dublin. While driving through the country is exciting and keeps you on your toes, the motorways in Ireland are just as boring as the interstates in the US. Dull and gloomy drive the whole way resulted in minimal views and with almost no other cars on the road, this happy driver was watching the clock crawl with every kilometer. Stopped by Starbucks to get the vibes back up where we got to try some UK exclusive drinks and sandwiches that put our spirits right where we needed them (tiramisu latte needs to make its way across the pond asap). Makenzie called the hotel during the drive and convinced them to prep our room early so we were able to check in right away once we arrived. Dropped our bags and started our exploration of the new and final city on our Ireland trip. Started walking towards Trinity College and found these cute wool buddies in a gift shop so had to get a couple. Makenzie got a sheep and I got a potato (naturally). Checked out the college campus a little bit but most of the libraries and buildings were pay to get a tour and we didn’t think it was worth it. Cool campus but kinda felt like we were on a campus tour again so we didn’t stick around too long (been there done that). Walked around the streets a bit more where we found some cool looking buildings and pubs then stopped into Bunsen Burger to try some classic Irish beef burgers. We were not disappointed one bit, these burgers were massive and amazing, solid spot for a quick lunch that definitely required some walking off after. Next stops were a couple castles and cathedrals. Saw Christ church cathedral first then St. Patrick’s castle in St Patrick’s park. Both were very beautiful buildings and the park was nice to stop and sit for awhile to kill some time before our tour of the Guinness Storehouse. The tour of the storehouse was very informative about the history of the Guinness company and the production process throughout the years. We started on the 1st of 7 floors and made our way up on a self guided tour. The 2nd floor showed us the ingredient production and collection process and the 3rd we finally got our first taste of Guinness fresh out of brewing. They had us in an all white tasting room that they said “elevates our senses” which was kinda cool. The flavors seemed more distinct and the foam seemed fluffier. On the 4th floor we learned how to pour a proper pint of Guinness and then we made our way up to the gravity bar on the 7th floor overlooking the city of Dublin. Overall fantastic experience, always interesting to see the in depth process for something that on the surface seems so simple. Stopped by the gift shop on the way out to get myself some Guinness merch (obviously) then made our way to the Old Brazenhead, the oldest pub in Ireland, for dinner. Had some fish and chips and Makenzie had the beef stew, both were very solid meals. Finally made the walk back to the hotel. On the walk we found yet another Murphys store so had to cap off our final night in Ireland with the best ice cream out there. Called it an early night tonight because we have an early travel day back to London tomorrow!

Alright lads strap in because we had ourselves a doozy of a day today and I found out you can add videos to these so more content to come. Woke up around 5am to pack up and get to the airport to return the car and get through security for our flight back to London. The process went way smoother than planned, officially made it through driving in Europe without a scratch (at least not one I was charged for, the car definitely has some more character now that the car company doesn’t need to know about). After a short weather delay and quick flight we were back in London where we will be for the remainder of our trip. Took the tube to our hotel where they had our room ready early so we dropped our bags and hit the city. Started off strong with a couple of sandwiches from Dal Fiarentino which was basically a subway with way fresher and nicer incredients. Sandwiches were a 10/10, will most likely be going back and they were only £5 a piece. Kept the energy up by stopping into a matcha place called Jenki to get another matcha latte. I think Makenzie has finally converted me to be a matcha boy, they’re a lot more tolerable now. Took a stroll through some of the main streets and did some window shopping where a saw some watches I had been looking at for awhile from Swatch that are difficult to get in the states. Makenzie encouraged me to go in and see if they had the whole collection and they did so we checked them out and I got to try a couple on. Very cool collaboration between Omega and Swatch to make a watch mirroring the Omega speedmaster, the first watch worn on the moon, but for a much more affordable price. Keeping that in the back of my mind, we continued walking and shopping through the streets where we found courtyards, alleyway food markets and parks as we made our walk towards the river Thames and the center of the city. Made it to the river which we followed the rest of the way until we got across from the London Eye. We don’t really have a desire to ride the Eye, but it was nice to sit on a bench and watch it for awhile. Kept walking until we found Big Ben where it started raining, so we made our way to a park to try and hide from the rain under some trees. Rain didn’t last too long, but we saw some new birds we hadn’t seen before so made a loop through the park to see what creatures were crawling around. Found a squadron of pelicans in the river (I did google it and that is the official name for a group of pelicans) and some moorhens that looked pretty fun. Started another trek to make our way over to Buckingham Palace that we will be touring later in the day, but we were ahead of schedule and figured wouldn’t hurt to walk the grounds around the palace before going in. However, rain started to pick up again and we still had about an hour and a half before our tour so we got a coffee at a chain coffee spot called Cafe Nero which was nothing to write home about, but I’m doing it anyways. The rain stopped and it was about time for our tour so we made our way back to the palace. Unfortunately no photography is allowed inside the palace so I can’t share pictures from the self guided tour, but we were able to see the different areas in the palace and learn about the history of each King or Queen that made developments to the grounds to get to where we are today. We also got to see pieces of art from the kings collection. The tour ended behind the palace where you typically get to go through the gardens, but they were closed off due to the high winds so our tour was cut a little short. Earlier in the day while we were on the bench we had bought tickets to see The Book of Mormon in the West End because we heard it’s like the Broadway of London so we wanted to stay out until the show started at 7:30 and the tour finished up around 5 so we had some spare time. We found a ramen place that had a discount for anyone with theater tickets from the same day that was close to The Prince of Wales Theater where we were seeing our show so we started walking to that part of the city to spend the rest of our time until the show started. Naturally as we were walking, we were craving Walkers, the British version of Lays, so stopped into a market to try them out. We got the salt and vinegar flavor which were good, but didn’t have the same kick as the American version. Must be some extra flavor in all those additives or something, but these were decent enough to satisfy. Coincidentally ran into a statue of Florence Nightingale, the original nurse so we made sure to stop and get a picture of the nurses together. Made it to our ramen dinner which was just about the same as the ramen spot we had in Ireland, neither were better than our go to spot back in Chicago but they both hit the spot. Still had a bit of time after dinner so we stopped into the Lego store where we saw some pretty awesome builds. They had a 344,020 piece Big Ben, a James Bind car you could sit in, and a bunch of Harry Potter themed builds which were all fun to see (don’t worry pictures are below). Finally it was theater time. The cast was so good and the show was absolutely hilarious, one of my favorite musicals I have seen so far. Makenzie and I decided our favorite songs were “Turn It Off” and “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream” but they were all fantastic. Made the late night walk back to the hotel and called it a night. Ended the day with 28,600 steps, definitely going to be sleeping good tonight. That’s my Ted Talk of a recap, thanks for reading!

Today was a fantastic day for our mouths, not so much for our stomachs as we visited one of the most popular food markets in London: Borough Market. We had seen plenty of different dishes online that we wanted to try so we went first thing in the morning (10am for us, we needed to sleep in after yesterday) so we would have empty stomachs. Started off light with a cup of chocolate covered strawberries that were by far the best strawberries I have ever had run under a chocolate fountain. Next I got a cortado from a Colombian coffee stand which was good, but not as good as what I had when I was in Colombia but at least they made a little foam heart on top just for me :). Our next stop was The Black Pig where we got a honey truffle parm pulled pork sandwich. The pork was ok, nothing close to American barbecue but the sandwich overall was amazing. The Parmesan cheese melted as soon as we bit into it and it had an apple slaw that had a nice chrunch to it and sweet flavor that blended well with the savory pork. Next stop, dessert. We found these donuts from Bread Ahead that we simply couldn’t pass up. They are famous for their crème brûlée donuts so we got one of those, a salted caramel and honeycomb donut, and a chocolate cream filled donut. All 3 were covered in sugar and all 3 were phenomenal. The salted caramel honey comb was my favorite but the top burnt bit of the crème brûlée one was very interesting and worth the try. Makenzie liked the chocolate (of course) but we made sure to put a dent in all 3 before moving on. We stopped into Makenzies new favorite matcha spot Jenki for a little sweet drink before our last stop: the oyster bar (like I said, great day for our mouths but putting our stomachs through a stress test for sure). I have had oysters before but Makenzie has not. She has always wanted to try them despite my best efforts to tell her she will not like them, so we figured after the light refreshments we have had thus far, today would be the best day. I’ll let the video below speak for itself but she was not a fan one bit. I am a fan of oysters and they were pretty good oysters, but I’d definitely pick the donuts over them. At least she got to try them and now we know the answer to that question! After the market we took a walk across the London Bridge (it was not falling down) to see some other well known streets and parks. After an hour or two of walking we found a wine bar we had heard of from one of Makenzie’s friends so stopped off for a glass of wine and a charcuterie board. They originally sat us inside of the literal wine cellar, but it was a little too musty for us so we asked to move outside to their alley looking into the park which was a much better seating option for the sunny day. The wine and food were both very good and it was nice to sit and enjoy outside for a bit. After the wine got us in the right mindset, I figured it was time to revisit the watch shop we had looked at before. I got the watch I had looked at a couple days ago in all black. I like getting watches for special occasions and since this was our first trip together as an engaged couple I figured I needed to have an engagement watch 😄. Walked around a couple more streets then went back to the hotel to nap off the thousands of calories we had already consumed to get our bellies ready for the Italian dinner reservation we made earlier in the day (we were 100% eating with our eyes and minds today, our stomachs can deal with it). Of course we couldn’t go to dinner empty handed so we stopped into Makenzie’s new 2nd favorite matcha spot blank street to get a sweet little drink before dinner. Dinner was very good, small little Italian place called 27 Old Compton Pasta Bar that had maybe 6 tables in the whole restaurant. One waitress was helping all the tables and 3 chefs were preparing all the food just a couple feet from our table so it was cool to interact with the whole staff while they were making our food. The pasta was evidently homemade and the sauces were very light and buttery. Made our way back to the hotel after another 20k step day and watched some British game shows until we both fell asleep.

Last full day in London so we had to kick it off with a full English breakfast! Made reservations at The Ivy Chelsea Garden because they had great reviews and the restaurant looked awesome. It was over in Chelsea which was about 2.5 miles (or 4km for the foreigners) so we decided to try out the double decker buses! Honestly really easy to get on and off, about $2 per trip and they were very clean. Made it to the restaurant just after they opened so we almost had the place to ourselves. I got the full English breakfast that had bacon, sausage, eggs, potato rösti (fancy hashbrowns), black pudding, roasted tomato, roasted mushroom, backed beans and sourdough bread and Makenzie got the breakfast special that came with a smoothie, croissant and basically a full English with less meat and bread. Everything was fantastic and I have to admit as someone that made fun of beans on toast so much before, it’s a pretty great combination and I think it deserves a spot at the breakfast table. Black pudding was odd, it’s \240basically pig blood sausage but it’s part of the traditional full English so I had to give it a proper try. After breakfast we walked to the National History Museum (stopped for matcha on the way of course) where we spent a couple hours looking at the exhibits. After the museum we went to the Portobello market, a popular street market filled with vendors selling all kinds of trinkets. Makenzie got a new pair of cute little heels for a pretty solid price, but wasn’t much else that caught our eye. Took a couple mile walk on the Princess Diana memorial walk then made our way to afternoon tea at The Wolseley ! Makenzie booked this for us before we got to Europe so we were looking forward to role playing upper class European people for an afternoon. They brought us a pot of tea and a little strainer thing which we had to figure out how to use by watching other tables for a bit (Makenzie was the one to figure it out, she was the brains for this whole operation). Then we got a platter of finger sandwiches, small little desserts and scones to finish the classic British high tea lunch. They made us a little congratulations cookie because we told them we were celebrating our engagement which was pretty cute. I was a bit skeptical going into the meal because it was about £50 for everything but I was pleasantly surprised with how good and how filling everything was. The tea itself was a lot better than I was expecting (I was planning on having a Ted Lasso type of reaction to the “horrible hot brown water”) and the sandwiches had a wide variety of fillings ranging from cucumber and cream to curry chicken that was a fun little surprise with each one. Kinda forgot tea was caffeinated and after about half a pot each we were more than ready to carry on with the rest of our afternoon. Made our way back to the hotel to charge our phones and get into some more casual attire before going to check out the Jellycat shop! Jellycat only has a couple physical stores completely dedicated to their plushies so it was very fun to check it out. They had some life sized plushies that I tried to convince Makenzie to get, but I don’t think TSA would be too happy with me bringing that on the plane as my personal item so instead we got ourselves a little guy, Charlie Chip the chip! (Or fry for us Americans). Next stop we went to Daunt Books bookstore which was recommended by all of TikTok. The store was very cool and had a large selection, but it was also packed and hot so we didn’t stick around too long. We had done a lot of walking at this point and didn’t have many other sights to check off our list so we went back to Dal Fiorentina (sandwich shop from day 1) because we still hadn’t found another sandwich that came close. We both ordered the same thing we got the first day just as a large instead of a small this time. Spent about £14 for two large sandwiches and a soda, by far the best bang for our buck the entire trip. Walked to a local park to enjoy our sandwiches on a bench and people watch to close out our last dinner abroad. Sat in the park until it started to get dark and cold then went on the hunt for a sweet treat before calling it a night. Makenzie found a gelato place called Bilmonte that hit the spot, but didn’t stand a chance against Murphys from Ireland. Got back to the hotel around 9, did some light packing and watched more British game shows until calling it a night. Finished the day at 29,600 steps, the most from any day on our trip!

Final day of the trip :( Pretty uneventful day today, woke up around 8am and packed up our things. Had to be a bit more strategic since we had full bags on the way to Europe and bought some things along the way but we made it work. After we were all packed we still had a couple hours until we needed to check out and head to the airport so you can probably guess what we did to pass the time… matcha time!! Our final London matcha from Blank Street, honestly the matcha here was so much better than the places in the states and it was way cheaper so even I will be missing the European matcha latte scene although I’m not as devastated as Makenzie. After our final matcha we checked out of the hotel and took the tube to Heathrow. Got ourselves some sandwiches from Pret which were solid before boarding our 8 hour flight home. Flight went fine, watched some movies together the whole time then had to go through customs and get an uber to go pick up my car from work. Had the most Chicago welcome home possible with an hour of traffic to get back into the city where we finally made it home and got to see Max and Ruby who were super excited to see us! \240We picked up pizza on the way home because we didn’t have any groceries and no way were we going to the store. Each had a couple slices then immediately passed out on the couches since we were both jet lagged. Overall a fantastic trip, Makenzie and I had a wonderful time seeing more of what the world has to offer with each other. Thanks for keeping up with our journey, it was a lot of fun to keep track of everything we did throughout the trip. Cheers to a great vacation and many more to come!